Currently, with the development of mobile internet and popularity of the multimedia technology, multimedia information retrieval becomes more and more favored, and an approach of retrieving related information needed by ourselves from a multimedia database on mobile internet or a local multimedia database has been more and more popular among vast users. This approach covers all current information devices, such as home computers, mobile phones, tablet Personal Computer (PC), etc.
However, since the amount of image data becomes increasingly large, existing retrieval solutions may spend an increasing amount of time for a user in searching images. In addition, in some application scenarios, the user may desire to rapidly retrieve images he needs by inputting a sketch.
Further, when a user draws a picture on the terminal device, he hopes to get a prompt or guidance image so as to obtain a required image better. In such application scenarios, drawing a picture by a user can be seen as an application of image retrieval.
The above problems suggest requirements for further developing relevant applications to address these kinds of problems. Therefore, a retrieval method for rapidly and precisely retrieving images that have similar or same contents according to the sketch information input by the user is needed.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.